U.S. Intel Community Says COVID-19 ‘Not Manmade or Genetically Modified’

A man wearing a mask at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan, March 16, 2020. (Jeenah Moon/Reuters)

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a Thursday statement that the U.S. intelligence community “concurs” with scientific assessments that coronavirus “was not manmade or genetically modified.”

“As we do in all crises, the Community’s experts respond by surging resources and producing critical intelligence on issues vital to U.S. national security,” ODNI said in a statement. “The IC will continue to rigorously examine emerging information and intelligence to determine whether the outbreak began through contact with infected animals or if it was the result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan.”

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Joel Cholo Brooks is a Liberian journalist who previously worked for several international news outlets including the BBC African Service. He is the CEO of the Global News Network which publishes two local weeklies, The Star and The GNN-Liberia Newspapers. He is a member of the Press Union Of Liberia (PUL) since 1986, and several other international organizations of journalists, and is currently contributing to the South Africa Broadcasting Corporation as Liberia Correspondent.